Old Graveyard Whiddy Island, Cork, Ireland

Though it can be said of many graveyards, the old graveyard on Whiddy Island has a particularly otherworldly feel to it. Situated at the westerly edge of the island it feels like it holds the last vestiges of life or remembrance before it finally ceased to exist here. Though the island is still inhabited its population has fallen dramatically over the past one hundred years and the forgotten graveyard is testimony to this. This graveyard is believed to date from the 6th century but appears to have succumbed to ruin since at least the 1900s. There is little evidence of the church that once stood here and would have served as the most important building on the island to its people.

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3 thoughts on “Old Graveyard Whiddy Island, Cork, Ireland”

Certainly a beautiful location. Most of our family (well the dead ones at any rate) are buried in a rural graveyard next to a church that was only built in 1904. When I was a child, it was a very well-kept, formal affair with rose beds ands gravel paths. Now, all the paths and flower beds are gone and already quite a lot of the grave stones are deteriorating – it really feels that nature is reclaiming it. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was forgotten in less than a century. Stacking up work for future archaeologists I suppose.